For times when you lose your cell-phone

For times when you lose your cell-phone

A few years ago, losing a cellphone used to be a simple affair. Sure, you had to bear the loss of a phone, and the price of buying a new one. The only other pain point was restoring all your contacts. But today, we do so much more than just call and SMS on our smartphones. So when you lose your phone, apart from restoring contacts, you have to worry about photos and videos you took. Then there’s the fact that you are logged in by default into Facebook, Gmail and many other online services that only you have access to. And you would sure like to keep it that way. There are apps available for both iOS and Android platforms for just such a situation. Most of these apps allow you to locate your phone on the map (provided the phone is switched on). Some of them sound an alarm even if your phone is on silent mode, and remotely wipe off all its data. LookOut, Norton, and McAfee are some of the most popular security apps. But a recently-launched service called One Assist goes beyond these features, and is tailored to Indian needs. “Think of us as an assistance company. The app only enables our service,” said Subrat Pani, co-founder and director of the Mumbai-based company. In case you’ve lost your cellphone, you can call the One Assist call centre. The company then blocks your SIM card, remotely wipes all your data, and informs your emergency contacts that you have lost your phone. If you happen to be in one of the 22 cities One Assist has a presence, the company will loan you a spare phone loaded with all your data for seven days. An app like LookOut, on the other hand, only allows you to remotely wipe all your data by logging into its website via a laptop. It doesn’t help you get back on your feet. One Assist is presently focussed on smartphones, and is currently available for Blackberry, Symbian and Android platforms — an iPhone app is in the works. According to Pani, smartphone users are likely to find their services more useful than feature phone users. “One Assist is not just about getting your contacts back. It’s about protecting your photos, videos and sensitive data.” But the service comes at a cost — Rs1,499 per year, to be precise. Will the price-conscious Indian buyer be willing to spend so much money? “We were clear at the outset that we wanted to be an assistance company. Indian consumers are unlikely to spend money for an improved experience. That’s why we chose to service users in a situation when they are in a panic... Plus our price boils down to roughly Rs4 per day. That’s less than the cost of a cutting chai,” says Pani.